Reports & Publications

  1. Giraldo‐Ospina, A., Bell, T., Carr, M. H., & Caselle, J. E. (2025). Drivers of spatiotemporal variability in a marine foundation species. Ecological Applications, 35(1), e3092. https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.3092
  2. Kitchel, Z. J., Claisse, J. T., Pondella Ii, D. J., Williams, C. M., Williams, J. P., & Schroeder, D. M. (2025). Community structure of southern California’s subtidal rocky reefs and implications for artificial reef design. Marine Ecology Progress Series. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps14991
  3. Pondella, D. J., Claisse, J. T., Williams, C. M., Williams, J. P., & Witting, D. (2025). Palos Verdes Reef: a test of artificial reef design criteria to increase regional fish production in southern California. Bulletin of Marine Science, 101(4), 1827–1846. https://doi.org/10.5343/bms.2025.0053
  4. Shrestha, J., Peters, J. R., Caselle, J. E., & Hamilton, S. L. (2025). Marine protection and environmental forcing influence fish‐derived nutrient cycling in kelp forests. Functional Ecology, 39(2), 403–417. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.14708
  5. Smith, J. G., Lopazanski, C., Free, C. M., Brun, J., Anderson, C., Carr, M. H., Claudet, J., Dugan, J. E., Eurich, J. G., Francis, T. B., Gill, D. A., Hamilton, S. L., Kaschner, K., Mouillot, D., Raimondi, P. T., Starr, R. M., Ziegler, S. L., Malone, D., Marraffini, M. L., … Caselle, J. E. (2025). Conservation benefits of a large marine protected area network that spans multiple ecosystems. Conservation Biology, 39(4), e14435. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.14435
  6. Spiecker, B., Carr, M. H., Malone, D. P., Parsons‐Field, A., Koehn, K., Pondella, D. J., & Caselle, J. E. (2025). Measuring biological effectiveness across a very large, coherent network of coastal marine protected areas. Ecological Applications, 35(5), e70074. https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.70074
  7. Yamane, L., Kaplan, K. A., White, J. W., Caselle, J. E., Malone, D., Carr, M. H., Baskett, M. L., Hastings, A., & Botsford, L. W. (2025). Quantifying local fishing mortality rates to inform monitoring design for marine reserves. Theoretical Ecology, 18(1), 22. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12080-025-00616-9
  8. Honeyman, C., Carlson, P., Jainese, C., Parsons‐Field, A., Eisaguirre, J., Davis, K., Giraldo‐Ospina, A., Spiecker, B., & Caselle, J. E. (2023). Correspondence among multiple methods provides confidence when measuring marine protected area effects for species and assemblages. Journal of Applied Ecology, 60(12), 2699–2712. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14515
  9. Malone, D. P., Davis, K., Lonhart, S. I., Parsons‐Field, A., Caselle, J. E., & Carr, M. H. (2022). Large‐scale, multidecade monitoring data from kelp forest ecosystems in California and Oregon. Ecology, 103(5), e3630. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3630
  10. Williams, J. P., Williams, C. M., Pondella, D. J., & Scholz, Z. M. (2022). Rebirth of a reef: As-built description and rapid returns from the Palos Verdes Reef Restoration Project. Frontiers in Marine Science, 9, 1010303. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.1010303
  11. Freedman, R., Brown, J. A., Caldow, C., & Caselle, J. E. (2021). Species-specific thermal classification schemes can improve climate related marine resource decisions. PLOS ONE, 16(4), e0250792. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250792
  12. Ovando, D., Caselle, J. E., Costello, C., Deschenes, O., Gaines, S. D., Hilborn, R., & Liu, O. (2021). Assessing the population-level conservation effects of marine protected areas. Conservation Biology, 35(6), 1861–1870. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13782
  13. White, J. W., Yamane, M. T., Nickols, K. J., & Caselle, J. E. (2021). Analysis of fish population size distributions confirms cessation of fishing in marine protected areas. Conservation Letters, 14(2), e12775. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12775
  14. Williams, J., Claisse, J., Pondella Ii, D., Williams, C., Robart, M., Scholz, Z., Jaco, E., Ford, T., Burdick, H., & Witting, D. (2021). Sea urchin mass mortality rapidly restores kelp forest communities. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 664, 117–131. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps13680
  15. Beas‐Luna, R., Micheli, F., Woodson, C. B., Carr, M., Malone, D., Torre, J., Boch, C., Caselle, J. E., Edwards, M., Freiwald, J., Hamilton, S. L., Hernandez, A., Konar, B., Kroeker, K. J., Lorda, J., Montaño‐Moctezuma, G., & Torres‐Moye, G. (2020). Geographic variation in responses of kelp forest communities of the California Current to recent climatic changes. Global Change Biology, 26(11), 6457–6473. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15273
  16. Eisaguirre, J. H., Eisaguirre, J. M., Davis, K., Carlson, P. M., Gaines, S. D., & Caselle, J. E. (2020). Trophic redundancy and predator size class structure drive differences in kelp forest ecosystem dynamics. Ecology, 101(5), e02993. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2993
  17. Freedman, R. M., Brown, J. A., Caldow, C., & Caselle, J. E. (2020). Marine protected areas do not prevent marine heatwave-induced fish community structure changes in a temperate transition zone. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 21081. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-77885-3
  18. Rassweiler, A., Dubel, A. K., Hernan, G., Kushner, D. J., Caselle, J. E., Sprague, J. L., Kui, L., Lamy, T., Lester, S. E., & Miller, R. J. (2020). Roving Divers Surveying Fish in Fixed Areas Capture Similar Patterns in Biogeography but Different Estimates of Density When Compared With Belt Transects. Frontiers in Marine Science, 7, 272. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00272
  19. Pondella Dj, I., Piacenza, S., Claisse, J., Williams, C., Williams, J., Zellmer, A., & Caselle, J. (2019). Assessing drivers of rocky reef fish biomass density from the Southern California Bight. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 628, 125–140. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps13103
  20. Zellmer, A. J., Claisse, J. T., Williams, C. M., Schwab, S., & Pondella, D. J. (2019). Predicting Optimal Sites for Ecosystem Restoration Using Stacked-Species Distribution Modeling. Frontiers in Marine Science, 6, 3. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2019.00003
  21. Claisse, J. T., Blanchette, C. A., Dugan, J. E., Williams, J. P., Freiwald, J., Pondella, D. J., Schooler, N. K., Hubbard, D. M., Davis, K., Zahn, L. A., Williams, C. M., & Caselle, J. E. (2018). Biogeographic patterns of communities across diverse marine ecosystems in southern California. Marine Ecology, 39(S1), e12453. https://doi.org/10.1111/maec.12453
  22. Coates, J. H., Schiff, K., Mazor, R. D., Pondella, D. J., Schaffner, R., & Whiteman, E. (2018). Development of a biological condition assessment index for shallow, subtidal rocky reefs in Southern California, \textlessspan style="font-variant:small-caps;"\textgreaterUSA\textless/span\textgreater. Marine Ecology, 39(S1), e12471. https://doi.org/10.1111/maec.12471
  23. Ebert, T. A., Barr, L. M., Bodkin, J. L., Burcham, D., Bureau, D., Carson, H. S., L. Caruso, N., Caselle, J. E., Claisse, J. T., Clemente, S., Davis, K., Detwiler, P. M., Dixon, J. D., Duggins, D. O., Engle, J. M., Estes, J. A., Groth, S. D., Grupe, B. M., Halmay, P., … Zhang, Z. (2018). Size, growth, and density data for shallow‐water sea urchins from Mexico to the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, 1956–2016. Ecology, 99(3), 761–761. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2123
  24. Pondella, D., Williams, J., Williams, C., Claisse, J., & Witting, D. (2018). Restoring a Nearshore Rocky Reef Ecosystem in the Challenge of an Urban Setting. American Fisheries Society Symposium, 86: 165–186.
  25. Zahn, L. A., Claisse, J. T., Williams, J. P., Williams, C. M., & Pondella, D. J. (2016). The biogeography and community structure of kelp forest macroinvertebrates. Marine Ecology, 37(4), 770–785. https://doi.org/10.1111/maec.12346
  26. Pondella, D. J., Williams, J., Claisse, J., Schaffner, B., Ritter, K., & Schiff, K. (2015). The Physical Characteristics of Nearshore Rocky Reefs in The Southern California Bight. Bull. Southern California Acad. Sci., 114(3), 105–122.
  27. Pondella, D. J. (2015). Habitat Conditions: Rocky Reefs. State of the Bay Report., 5(1). http://urbancoast.org/
  28. Claisse, J. T., Williams, J. P., Ford, T., Pondella, D. J., Meux, B., & Protopapadakis, L. (2013). Kelp forest habitat restoration has the potential to increase sea urchin gonad biomass. Ecosphere, 4(3), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1890/ES12-00408.1
  29. Gillett, D. J., Pondella, D. J., Freiwald, J., Schiff, K. C., Caselle, J. E., Shuman, C., & Weisberg, S. B. (2012). Comparing volunteer and professionally collected monitoring data from the rocky subtidal reefs of Southern California, USA. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 184(5), 3239–3257. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-011-2185-5
  30. Hamilton, S., Caselle, J., Lantz, C., Egloff, T., Kondo, E., Newsome, S., Loke-Smith, K., Pondella Dj, I., Young, K., & Lowe, C. (2011). Extensive geographic and ontogenetic variation characterizes the trophic ecology of a temperate reef fish on southern California (USA) rocky reefs. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 429, 227–244. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps09086
  31. Hamilton, S. L., Caselle, J. E., Malone, D. P., & Carr, M. H. (2010). Incorporating biogeography into evaluations of the Channel Islands marine reserve network. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(43), 18272–18277. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0908091107
  32. Oakes, C. T., & Pondella, D. J. (2009). The Value of a Net‐Cage as a Fish Aggregating Device in Southern California. Journal of the World Aquaculture Society, 40(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-7345.2008.00233.x

Consortium Products

  1. Caselle, J. E., Nickols, K. J., Smith, J. G., Lopazanski, C., & Brun, J. (2022). A Synthesis of Ecological and Social Outcomes from the California Marine Protected Area (MPA) Network [A report to the California Ocean Protection Council and California Department of Fish and Wildlife]. https://www.opc.ca.gov/webmaster/_media_library/2023/01/NCEAS_MPA_Report_Final.pdf
  2. Carr, M. H., Caselle, J. E., Cavanaugh, K., Freiwald, J., Kroeker, K. J., Pondella Ii, D. J., & Tissot, B. (2021). Monitoring and Evaluation of Kelp Forest Ecosyste.
  3. Caselle, J. E., & Cabral, R. B. (2018). Monitoring California’s rocky marine ecosystems across a network of MPAs: methodological comparison of multiple monitoring techniques.
  4. Jenkinson, R., & Craig, S. (2017). Baseline monitoring of rocky reef and kelp forest habitats of the north coast study region.
  5. Caselle, J. E., & Blanchette, C. A. (2015). South Coast Baseline Program Final Report: Integration. https://caseagrant.ucsd.edu/sites/default/files/23_Caselle_Blanchette_Final_Report_RMPA23.pdf
  6. Pondella, D. J., Caselle, J. E., Claisse, J. T., Williams, J. P., Davis, K., Williams, C. M., & Zahn, L. A. (2015). South Coast Baseline Program Final Report: Kelp and Shallow Rock Ecosystems.
  7. Carr, M. H., Saarmen, E., & Malone, D. P. (2013). North Central Coast Baseline Program Final Report: Kelp Forest Ecosystems.
  8. Tenera, et al. (2006). Compllation and Analysis of CIAP Nearshore Survey Data.

Agency Partners Reports

  1. Trust, C. O. S., of Fish {and} Wildlife, C. D., & California Ocean Protection Council. (2017). State of the California South Coast: Summary of Findings from Baseline Monitoring of Marine Protected Areas, 2011–2015.

Other Reports

  1. Pondella Ii, D. J., Claisse, J. T., Kitchel, Z. J., Williams, C. M., Dillon, M., Kim, M. H., Williams, J. P., Pua, C. B., & Shubin, N. P. (2026). The Environmental Status of Artificial Structures Offshore Southern California (No. OCS Study BOEM 2026-xxx; Issue OCS Study BOEM 2026-xxx, p. 101).
  2. Williams, J. P., Williams, C. M., & Pondella Ii, D. J. (2025). Palos Verdes Reef Restoration Project Annual Report: Project Year 4 (2024). A report to the California Coastal Commission, California State Lands Commission, and Department of the Army. Vantuna Research Group, Occidental College.
  3. Pondella, D. (2018). THE CURRENT AND POTENTIAL CONTRIBUTION OF MANMADE REEF HABITATS TO FISHERIES RESOURCES AND PROTECTED SPECIES RECOVERY IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
  4. Pondella, D., Schiff, K., Schaffner, R., Zellmer, A., & Coates, J. (2016). Southern California Bight 2013 Regional Monitoring Program: Volume II. Rocky Reefs.
  5. Pondella Ii, D. J., Claisse, J. T., & Williams, J. (2015). Characterization of Kelp Forest and Shallow Rock Ecosystems at San Clemente Island, California, 2012-2013 [A report to the: United States Navy].
  6. Pondella, D., Williams, J., Claisse, J., Schaffner, R., Ritter, K., & Schiff, K. (2011). SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BIGHT 2008 REGIONAL MONITORING PROGRAM: V. ROCKY REEFS.
  7. Pondella, D. J. (2009). The Status of Nearshore Rocky Reefs in Santa Monica Bay For Surveys Completed in the 2007-2008 Sampling Seasons 2009 Final Report to the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission.